I received an email from the landowner that hogs were apparently back on his property. I met him Thursday evening and he explained that he found rooting on the SW side and suggested I hunt a feeder in that area.

After baking in the sun for about 3.5 hours, I saw some dark spots moving through the bush. I was facing into the sun, but it had finally gone down below the level of the trees. A turkey had tricked me earlier in the same area and I thought a group of turkeys was about to come out, but it was hogs.

Two sows and seven itty bitty piglets presented themselves and as there was still daylight, they all looked about as black with the naked eye as they did through the scope. I picked the most cautious sow as my target. She also seemed a bit larger.

She dropped with the first shot. The second shot was into the grouped piglets and one of those tumbled out and I panned over and tried to lead the other fleeing sow. I led her too much. I went back to check on the piglet and it was GONE! I kept scanning, thinking that maybe it was swallowed up in high grass or a low spot as I could not see it anywhere. It wasn't until I reviewed the video that I understood what happened. I tried following their exit route to see if I could find the piglet, but was not successful.

In the end, one 120 lb sow, 115 yards, right at dusk. The shot entered a bit low, breaking her right humerus, traversing under her head and clipping the back of the left mandible before exiting, apparently taking a lot of blood vessels along the way. She was a good bleeder. She was wet. Apparently, they had been swimming.

As per the landowners instructions, I dragged her away from the feeder and sliced her open for easy access by other animals.

I don't know where they ran to, but I know where they came from. The sow I recovered was wet from top to bottom. The place is over 500 acres in size and some of the stuff is thick, thick, thick. If it hasn't been cleared by machine or isn't river bottom, it is really tough travel for humans.